Amid the Cold of Winter

Ice and snow.

Willow Lake, iced over.

The geese of Goose Hill Terrace.

White Out!

Tomorrow, classes are cancelled, as they were today and Monday afternoon. We're having a mix of snow and ice fall down and make everything pretty hard to drive in. Jay had to come rescue me Monday; unfortunately, that means my car is still stranded in the university parking lot! Our hope is that by tomorrow evening the roads will be good enough to go get it, though.

Mom and Jay are, unfortunately, classified as Essential Personnel in their departments, and as such have not had any days off for weather. So I've been cocooned at home, alternately scrubbing bathtubs and drinking hot cocoa. I've tried out a few more baking soda recipes, and have concluded that 1/4 c of baking soda, 1/4 c of cornstarch, and 3T of coconut oil mixed and stuffed into an empty deodorant container works much better than anything I've ever bought at the store for that purpose! It's definately not "clear dry," however, so if you wear a darker color, you'll have to be careful putting your shirt on.

I've been on a total denim skirt kick lately, and have been using my clothing budget to acquire some nice ones. I may do a clothes post in a few days, just ebcause I'm so excited to have winter clothes that aren't black!

I hope this finds everyone safe and sound. Stay warm!

Around Campus

Friday I took my trusty camera with me to class so that I could give you guys a glimpse into a "day in the academic life" of yours truly. :)



The Nigh Center, the hub of activity around here. The first floor has food, books, and sitting areas, the rest is full of offices pertinent to student interests.


Broncho Lake, and some visiting geese.


The Liberal Arts Building, which houses History, English, Philosophy, etc.


The Music Building.


Old North, one of the original buildings from the school's founding after the Land Run of 1889.


The new Education Building. UCO is known in Oklahoma as the "Teacher's College" because of the large number of education degrees it awards.

Well, there you have it! A tour of the campus, or at least the sights I see each day I'm there. :)

Also, an update on the wisdom teeth; I'm almost 100% healed over now!

A Matter of Opinion

Recently my dear mother, on persuasion of her boss, has taken up reading the Twilight series of books. I have not read any of them apart from excerpts, and I have no desire to read them in full.

Some of you may recall that I occasionally refer to myself as a "Recovering Goth." Everly, in particular, met me on a day when I was clad in head-to-toe black. I've read just about every piece of vampire literature in existence from the era when the genre became popular, and then some. The popularity of Twilight causes me to reflect on how vampirism was originally portrayed in literature; vampires, for all their glamour, were evil. Vampirism in the original mythos was a perversion so severe that the Devil himself would not accept a vampire's soul. In other tellings, vampires were themselves a form of visible, earth-dwelling demon.

I find it interesting that in our century something once used as a literary device to indicate ultimate evil has been "re-imagined" into something that is merely scientific; an imbalance in chromosomes brought on by infection by a certain venom. I may expand on my thoughts on this later.

I would also like to add this merely as a point of interest, and not in attempt to insult or distress anyone, but Stephanie Meyer's Mormon faith does have an effect on her writing. While this contributes some virtues, such as abstinence, it also raises issues. Her concept of the relationship and marriage between her two main characters is heavily flavored by the Mormon concept of "Sealing" a marriage. I'm no expert in theology, but I would imagine a scholar of Christian religion could find many more references amidst the pages. If you treasure the doctrines of your own denomination, this could unnerve you or raise issues; a devout Catholic (or Baptist, or Adventist, or...), for example, may perceive it to be akin to Mormon propaganda.

Not to mention as far as books go, they're quite poorly written.

This ended up longer than I thought. Hmm. Maybe I should research a bit more and write again.

A Day of Prayer

I am taking today as an opportunity to pray for our country, its citizens, and its leaders new and established. Our new President has a daunting task ahead of him, as do all those with whom he surrounds himself.

In these uncertain times, what a comfort it is that we can rely on God.

Happy Birthday, General!

Yes, yes, I know it's MLK Day. But so many bloggers, Everly included have that completely taken care of in more eloquence that I could hope to express.

So, I'd like to extend a humble bit of honor to the birthday of a great man, a brilliant military mind, and a pillar of Southern History.



Let's not forget to remember Robert E. Lee, a man Lincoln himself admired.

Ouchie!

I had my wisdom teeth removed today. It was an adventure, to say the very least. But the oral surgeon was very knowledgeable, his assisstants friendly, and his surgery room wallpapered with a giant photograph of a forest path with oak trees, Spanish moss, azalea bushes, and pink roses. Be still my heart! ;) It was certainly the most pleasant dental work I've ever had done.

So, sterile gauze and I shall become good friends for the next 20 hours or so. For all the factors, and the depth of my roots (apparently), it was a relatively uneventful procedure that he said was actually simpler than he thought it would be at first.

Anyway, if you're plauged by wisdom teeth that occasionally like to cut through and hurt very badly, I reccommend going ahead with the procedure. Dr. Johnson actually said I ought to have gotten them out a couple years earlier, before the roots were mature. Apparently my teeth developed really quickly, which makes sense; I was the first one in my kindgergarten class to lose one. It's a very funny story involving a banana and Gullah Gullah Island, but I'll save that for another time.

Well, I'm off to grab a little shut-eye. Oh, by the way, I've been listening like crazy to Deborah Brinson's Let Dixie Remember, which I downloaded from Behemoth.com. It's absolutely gorgeous, and more than half is actual old Southern Civil War songs, or old Southern poems set to music. It's also available on CD from harpofdixie.com. I've also managed to find the lyrics to every last song (believe me, it was a Google treasure hunt!), so if anyone does get it, I'm happy to help out. ;)

*Whew*

Well, today was my second day of college. Allow me to say it's interesting, and is going to continue to be so.

I have already learned so much in my first two days of music that it's my favorite class so far. Everything from my piano days is rushing back to me, and I'm really looking forward to deepening my understanding as time goes by.

My history teacher is very funny, and very knowledgable. The supplementary reader he has assigned us is very Marxist in interpretive nature, but I don't much mind. He's said that as long as I keep an open mind and am respectful, I am more than welcome to "butt heads" with him on historical interpretation.

English is a little disappointing, I must say. It will be my simplest class I can tell, but I do love writing prompts, and it's good to have peer review/editing as well as the opinions of an older expert.

Psychology is a requirement at my college, and so I'm glad I'm getting it out of the way first semester. It's all moral grey areas and pseudoscience as far as I've seen. Psychology is a pretty modern study, and is very subjective and bound by popular opinion. It is a large class, however, so hopefully I can pass through unnoticed.

Last night, I attended the official Watch Party for Crystal Darkness Oklahoma,a meth awareness campaign and documentary. It was an amazing night, very heavy and moving. When all was said and done, the planning committee, for which I was a consultant on certain aspects, was brimming with emotion. I've never gotten so many bear hugs from so many people in my life before.

Well, the mail is here! I'm off, lovelies.

Wish Me a Little Luck...

...And a lot of strength. Tomorrow is my first day of college! I'm looking forward to my classes with a certain amount of trepidation. I'm taking:

American History, Origins-1877
English Composition
Intro to Basic Music Skills
Psychology

The last one I'm not terribly excited about, but the other three sound fantastic! I'm hoping that my mind will be able to sift through the falsehoods and political correctness so that I can gain only positive from my experience.

As far as a major, I'm considering either Philosophy or Humanities.

I promise I'll blog about my first day! :)

Baking Soda!

I love baking soda. It is my new favorite household item. Today, I have scrubbed countertops, cleaned the sink, and done all manner of amazing things with simple, humble baking soda. Rather than needing six or seven cleaners, all I needed was a little baking soda and some water, and in some cases a pinch of vinegar to get to the tough things out. It's kind of fun to play chemist in your sink, and even soaked-in black paint goes away in a snap.

I've also found that a paste of 4 parts baking soda and one part water is the single best thing you can use to clean a toilet. In addition to the fantastic cleaning job, it deodorizes and gives off a great scent, completely free of any chemical odor.

I'm also getting ready to make a few personal care products, such as deodorant and toothpaste, myself, and I'll post those results as well.

Also, I've found that mineral oil with a pinch of lemon juice makes a fantastic furniture polish!

New Year's Resolutions

For this year, I am determined to do all of my cleaning with simple ingredients. No more nasty chemicals for me! Vinegar and baking soda for all-purpose cleaning, mineral oil and lemon juice for furniture polish, and flax seed oil for leather polish. Wish me luck!

In the coming days, I'll also be posting reading lists and such for the next 12 months.

Lemonade!

Dear Miss Everly has awarded me the Lemonade Blog Award, in honor of my pruported ability to make good things out of bad situations. *blush* I'm very flattered.

The conditions of the award are that I must post about it, picture included, and pass on the award. So...I pass it to the lovely Maggie Clitheroe and to dear Leigh, who make some wonderful lemonade. ;)